THE ENTOMOLOGIST 



Vol. XLL] FEBKUAEY, 1908. [No. 537 



MAETIN JACOBY, F.E.S. 



With the greatest regret we have to record the death of our 

 valued colleague Martin Jacoby, who passed away on December 

 24th, 1907. When the late Mr. John Henry Leech acquired the 

 * Entomologist' in 1889, Mr. Jacoby was one of the six specialists 

 who promised their support and consented to act on the Eeference 

 Committee of this Journal. Since that time papers on new species 

 of Phytophaga described by him from many parts of the globe 

 have appeared in almost every volume of the publication. Among 

 quite his latest work on this group of the Coleoptera are the 

 descriptions of novelties in the present number, the proof of 

 which he had read and marked for press a few days only before 

 he died. 



Mr. Jacoby was born on April 12th, 1842, in Altona, near 

 Hamburg. His boyhood was spent amid poor surroundings in the 

 vicinity of the port of Hamburg. Later on he entered the office 

 of a leather merchant, but the occupation and associations were 

 not in the least adapted to his temperament. In those early 

 days, even as they continued to the end, a love of music and a 

 yearning for the study of Natural History were dominant notes 

 in his life. Advantage was taken of every opportunity that 

 occurred of setting out on a collecting foray, or of attending 

 wherever military or other bands might be heard. Having 

 studied the violin for a number of years he, when about twenty 

 years of age, relinquished the leather business and came to 

 England, when he became a member of Sir Charles Halle's 

 orchestra then in Manchester. Subsequently he came to London, 

 and joined the orchestra of the Eoyal Italian Opera. Whilst 

 holding this position he formed a connection as a teacher of his 

 favourite instrument, the violin, and he decided to make London 

 his home. 



Before leaving Germany he had commenced to form a collec- 

 tion of birds and insects, but on the advice of the late Edward 

 Hargitt, an authority on woodpeckers, to confine his attention to 



ENTOM. FEBRUAKY, 1908. C 



